The UMPC form-factor has lost much of its appeal as consumers have become so infatuated with netbook computers. It used to be that if you were looking for a computer with a small screen that was very portable, the UMPC was the only ticket in town.

The Q1EX measure 9-inches x 5-inches x 1-inch (W x H x D) and weighs less than 1.5 pounds. The device sheds its odd split thumb keyboard in favor of an onscreen keyboard and 7-inch touch panel LCD. The panel has a screen resolution of 1024 x 600 and 300 nits of brightness.

Samsung promises that the standard 4-cell lithium-ion battery pack is good for up to 4.5 hours of run time and that the extended life battery is good for up to 8.5 hours. Connectivity options with the system include 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 is included. An integrated dual-array mic allows users to make VOIP calls using the device as well.

The hardware inside the tiny chassis includes a 60GB HDD, 2GB of DDR2 667 MHz RAM and the processor is a VIA Nano ULV U2500 running at 1.2GHz. The system runs Windows XP Tablet Edition and graphics are VIA Chrome9 HC. Samsung warrantees the Q1EX for 1 year for parts and labor.

The Q1EX is available now online for $775.99, which seems steep considering similarly specked netbooks can be had for half that amount.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA